Apprehended By Grace: Keeping the Main Thing, the Main Thing!

Apprehended by Grace: Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing!

January 9, 2013 So here goes with our fourth email regarding our convictions and beliefs in 2013 for Rivers of Eden. I am posting these to walk forward into this year as a ministry with renewed strength, momentum, and clarity. Thanks to all of you who are reading these. This one may be a bit longer. Be patient please. I will try to keep on point yet I want to establish this truth surely and with clear conviction.

Colossians 1:16-18

For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

Jesus Christ, in all things, and in all ways shall have preeminence. I believe that statement is easy to forget as things constantly get in the way of this simple revelation. So many irrelevant and inconsequential things have overshadowed the simplicity of Jesus Christ. He is the center of everything and all flows through Him, to Him and from Him. And here is glorious truth.

Colossians 1:27

To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

1 Corinthians 6:17

But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him

He is in you. In fact, you are in union with Christ Jesus. Simply receive that and rest in that revelation, day-by-day, moment-by-moment. It considerably changes how you live your life and how ministry unto the Lord flows forth from your life.

Rivers of Eden and all those associated with this ministry, and to each place God sends us we shall remember one simple fact. Jesus Christ shall have the preeminence in all we say and all we do. As the people of God, we are in the New Covenant, sealed in Christ, and living in the reality of the finished work of the Cross. This has given us an inheritance in Christ, a freedom in Christ and LIFE. We put aside the irrelevance of anything that competes with Jesus Christ. Even good things can compete with Christ. Therefore, I have decided to KEEP THE MAIN THING, THE MAIN THING.

The Prophetic Expression of Rivers of Eden

We are called to BE the creative expression of Jesus Christ. This is our mandate and our mission. There is no cloning in the Body of Christ. We are not robotic or called to be templates of another man’s message or ministry. Creativity is resident in our identity in Christ. Flowing forth from that identity, creativity is our expression of who we are, what we are called to do, and how we are expressing His reality in our lives, all in grace.

We chased after personalities and conferences in years past. Reading books and listening to online teachings only left me more confused and further away from the simplicity found in Jesus Christ. There are subtle implications as well as blatant declarations abounding today in many venues that one must come somewhere, attend, listen to or be apart of SOMETHING rather than simply look at Christ in you, the hope of glory. It has rendered a people that are hopelessly divided and immature.

In prophetically moving forth now and in the coming days, we shall move out on a clear revelation of grace, in His glory. That involves keeping the New Covenant in clear focus and only proceeding forth in what glorifies the Son and does not mix Old Covenant with the New. Hence, our prophetic expression will be based on showing forth the reality of the person of Christ Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit, and revealing the awesomeness of God the Father.

Revelation 19:10

And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy

Every prophetic word, utterance, dream, vision, dance, song SHALL be brought forth from the inner reality of Jesus Christ, bringing all glory and honor to Him. The truth of His testimony, the finished work of the cross shall ring forth from the prophetic in our lives. There shall be the reality of His love for people. There shall be no judgment or wrath or implication of such. There shall be no anger as if inferring that God is not totally pleased with you. Grace shall abound in the prophetic just as grace flowed from the testimony of the cross of Christ. We believe that grace supersedes law in every way. In believing that, we know that words of life shall be imparted through this ministry. God alone brings the change in a human heart. The world languishes under judgment. We shall not contribute to that and bring forth a distorted revelation of an angry abusive God.

The Evangelistic Expression of Rivers of Eden

Flowing forth in the reality of Christ in us, and our union with Christ frees us to BE everywhere in the earth. In being who we are in Christ, we don’t have to define ourselves by any template of evangelism as taught in days past. We just have to BE in Christ, which we are, wherever we are. It is not my purpose to defend the Gospel by an external compulsion to hand out tracts or to feel guilty because I don’t lead hundreds of people to Christ. Christianity is alive in Christ and shall reign forever as truth. It is. He is. We are in Him.

The Gospel needs no defense as if it is lacking in something or that we should try to prove something. The finished work of the cross of Christ, the shed blood of Jesus and its reality is worked through our lives individually and in that, we evangelize. Evangelism is not external to our passion and our purpose. We naturally and supernaturally evangelize based upon the reality of our passion for Jesus Christ. How can you not but talk about Him?

That reality FLOWS, so real and so true from LIFE. We are not called to focus on people just to get them saved from hell or somehow to convince them that Jesus is real or even to push the Gospel down their throats in some measure of self-righteousness. Move out in the truth of the person of Christ Jesus.

Love all people for He died for all. Because of this revelation to our hearts, we don’t avoid going anywhere or being Christ like in the most obscure or strange places. In being in Christ, our lives change atmospheres and we are simply open to speaking forth of Him from the reality of our lives. We want to see people encounter God. We count as our friends everyone for we know that except for God’s grace, we have been in that same position. We love in Christ and listen, even if we disagree. God is ABLE to show Himself to people. We are simply the vessels of His grace and glory.

In humility of heart, knowing by GRACE I have been saved, I leave you to ponder all of this. 

In Christ

Debra Westbrook